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PEOPLE PLACES AND THINGS MONOLOGUE

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bethan
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1K views

PEOPLE PLACES AND THINGS MONOLOGUE

Uploaded by

bethan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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People, Places and Things

EMMA
With a play you get instructions. Stage directions. Dialogue. Someone
clothes you. Tells you where to be and when. You get to live the most
intense moments of a life over and over again, with all the boring bits left
out. And you get to practise. For weeks. And you’re applauded. Then you
get home. Back to real life. Waiting. Temping. Nothing permanent. Can't
plan. Audition comes in. try to look right. Sit In a room surrounded by
people who look just like you, all after the same part. Make these
friendships with people, a little family, fall in love onstage and off and
then it’s over and you don’t see them again. You try not to take it
personally when people who aren’t as good as you get the parts. When
you go from being the sexy ingénue to the tired mother of three.

But you keep going because sometimes, if you’re really lucky, you get to
be onstage and say things that are absolutely true, even if they’re made
up. You get to do things which feel more real to you, more authentic, more
meaningful than anything in your own life. You get to speak words you
would never think to say but which become yours as you speak them.

I played Antigone and every night my heart broke about her dead brother.
Then my own brother died and I didn’t feel anything. I missed the funeral
because I had a matinee. I’m not avoiding talking to the group because
I’ve got something to hide. It’s the opposite. If I’m not in character I’m not
sure I’m really there. I’m already dead.

Acting gives me the same thing as drugs and alcohol. Good parts are just
harder to come by.

I really
I really miss my brother

Context
Duncan McMillan play
2015

Emma is an actor undergoing rehab for drink and drug addiction


In a therapy circle
Pathological addict – uncontrollably addicted
Pathological actor – if she’s not a character is she really there

Emma is an actress with a drug and alcohol problem, she has checked
herself into a rehab
facility but is struggling to connect with the group and get to the root of
her addictions. In this
scene she is talking to a fellow patient about her job and life.

Thoughts Feelings

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